Successful Practices & Strategies Vol. 3 | No. 8

Toledo Police Department 

Toledo, Ohio 

http://www.toledopolice.com/ 

Community policing element 

Community partnerships 

Problem/issue 

Quality of life 

Problem description 

Code violations in various neighborhoods are believed to lead to criminal activity. 

Community policing strategies implemented 

The Toledo Police Department and the City of Toledo have devised a new T-Town program, which was 

designed to mirror the "Tidy Towns" program that is used in Ireland. T-Town partners up with Code 

Enforcement employees and picks a portion of their districts to target (there are eight districts in 

Toledo). The duo identifies a 3–4 block area of the district and aggressively enforces code violations, 

which we believe lead to criminal activity and for which we have zero tolerance. Community meetings 

are held prior to the initiatives, and the community is strongly encouraged to help with the clean-up to 

reclaim their neighborhoods. 

Change and/or impact as a result of these community policing efforts 

The T-Town initiative gave the community service officers (CSO) the opportunity to get out in the field 

and work in partnership with other city departments to clean up neighborhoods that were in need. 

During the initiatives, CSOs were able to develop a working relationship with the city code inspectors 

assigned to their area of responsibility and, as a result, they were better able to assist one another in 

addressing neighborhood issues. 
Lessons learned through program implementation 

Recommendations to improve the program include the following: 

 Conduct the initiatives in those areas where there is strong community involvement. Consider

having neighborhoods apply for the initiative because it was found that where there was no

community involvement by residents, the properties quickly reverted back to their prior state.

 While the initiatives were scheduled as a one day event on a Thursday, it would be better to let city

personnel coordinate and schedule the different city services (e.g., street cleaning, forestry, garbage

pick-up, inspections) over several days. Then the CSOs could set up in the neighborhood on a

Saturday, along with the Beautification Action Team (city crews that do remaining clean-up). More

residents would be home on a Saturday and able to assist in the clean-up. Thursdays did not work

well in prior initiatives because most residents were working.

 On Saturday, it is believed that more residents would communicate with the CSOs and share their

concerns regarding criminal or quality-of-life issues. In the past T-Town initiatives, surveys were left

with residents with few responses returned.

 Assist residents in getting private sponsors to donate food and soda for a picnic.

 Continually re-evaluate the program and make necessary changes.

The opinions contained herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the 

U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific agencies, companies, products, or services should not be considered an 

endorsement by the author(s) or the U.S. Department of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement 

discussion of the issues. 

The Internet references cited in this document were valid as of the date of publication. Given that URLs and websites are in 

constant flux, neither the author(s) nor the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services can vouch for their current validity. 

Published 2016